Buncombe sheriff defends drug arrest for tortilla dough

From The Asheville Citizen-Times

ASHEVILLE — Apparently faulty tests led to a man being jailed for four days for a substance Buncombe County sheriff’s deputies thought was cocaine but turned out to be tortilla dough and other food, Sheriff Van Duncan said Monday.

Facing pressure from local elected officials and Latino advocates, Duncan responded to allegations that deputies acted improperly or with racial bias in charging Antonio Hernandez Carranza, 45, of Carson, Calif., with possession of 91 pounds of cocaine.

Duncan and his spokesman Lt. Randy Sorrells said they couldn’t think of anything deputies should have done differently in the arrest that began when an officer encountered Hernandez early May 1, stopped with his hazard lights flashing in an Interstate 240 travel lane.

If Hernandez, who said he got lost in Asheville after overshooting Johnson City, Tenn., where his sister lives, had cooperated instead of driving off, nothing bad would likely have happened, they said.

“When you break down the steps the officers took, everything they did was legal and reasonable,” the sheriff said.

Local Latino advocates, though, questioned how the tests were conducted that led to Hernandez being jailed on a total bond of $300,000 and being told he could spend up to 40 years in prison.

Gustavo Silva, a local Latino advocate who helped Hernandez get his truck back, said that even if he was guilty of failing to yield to the officers, four days in jail under a very high bond was too much of a penalty.

He also questioned how tests that determine whether a person goes free or is imprisoned can be so wrong.

“The least they can do is apologize,” he said.

Hernandez, a legal resident who understands a fair amount of English but speaks only a little, said he had driven three days straight and believes he missed the turnoff for Interstate 81 to Johnson City from Interstate 40. The carpet cleaning company employee said he hadn’t seen his sister for nearly a decade and was bringing $400 worth of fresh shrimp, tamales, tortillas and other food as gifts.

On I-240, he said he thought he saw steam coming from his truck and got out to look. An officer approached, he said, and told him several times to move. He drove off slowly.

But according to Duncan, when the deputy tried to speak to Hernandez, he “looked over his shoulder and appeared startled,” then drove off slowly with his flashers still on.

The deputy followed with his siren and blue lights, attempting to stop him. Hernandez said he thought the deputy was shepherding him along, but patrol cars ahead were blocking his path and deputies said they used stop sticks to deflate Hernandez’s tires.

“The driver had to be forcefully removed from the vehicle and placed under arrest,” Duncan said.

Hernandez said he was given no time to speak and had a knee put in his back and his arm pinned behind him. He was arrested for failing to heed blue lights and sirens and driving while intoxicated; he was jailed under a $1,500 bond.

Breathalyzer tests later showed Hernandez, who said he doesn’t drink, was not intoxicated.

His dog, traveling with him, was taken and his truck impounded.

A drug dog indicated the possible presence of narcotics in the truck, and deputies did field tests. Three tests made by three different companies conducted by different deputies all came back positive for cocaine, Duncan said.

Deputies in contact with Duncan reported, “‘This doesn’t look like drugs, but it is testing positive,’” the sheriff said.

Another thing that caught their attention was shrimp that they said was decaying, since drug smugglers sometimes use decaying food to throw off drug dogs.

Hernandez said he took care to keep the shrimp on ice and stopped occasionally to add more.

Drug trafficking charges might have been warranted, Duncan said, but officers were somewhat leery because the substances didn’t look like drugs. Still, they wanted charges that would carry a bond high enough to keep Hernandez from making bail or getting far, the sheriff said.

They rushed the food to state labs so they could get results quickly. When they got the negative results, they were flabbergasted, the sheriff said.

Duncan said he’s never seen field tests yield false positives in this way.

“I have no idea why they did,” he said.

Hernandez was found guilty of failing to heed the lights and sirens. He struggled for days before finally getting his truck and dog back.

Duncan said his staff is contacting the companies that make the tests to see what could have happened.

Meanwhile, he hopes something good can come from the encounter.

“The good thing is that it will probably re-energize our contact with the Latino advocacy groups,” he said.

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